I wear many titles. A single mother from India, working full-time as blogger, content writer, social media manager and most recently a full-time
blog manager. I have been working full-time for about three years now, and let me tell you, working from home is a great experience.
The first advantage is you don’t have to travel to your office wading through the traffic. Personally, I feel it is a headache to drive these days because of the type of traffic (+pollution) you deal with every day. If you are going by any public transport, it is very time-consuming. At the end of the day, you are likely to spend a lot of time going from your home to the bus stop then commuting on the bus with its many halts. And that’s not the end of it; you will be lucky indeed if the bus stop is right in front of your office. But the more likely scenario is that you will probably have to walk at least a little bit. Working at home saves you from all these kind of troubles.
These days a lot of companies allow their regular employees to work from home on some days. One can also work from home in India if you are a freelancer, or if you own a business. But is working from home good in terms of productivity? Well, the question is whether you are comfortable to work from home? If you are comfortable and then productivity will not be a problem.
Distractions abound
But the biggest issue that WFM Moms face is distraction. There is always so much to do. If you have a small kid or a pet at your home and they start playing with you right when you are working you are likely to get quite distracted. If you are thinking that playing for 5 minutes can’t do any harm then you are wrong. Yes understandably WFM Moms have responsibilities towards their kids. After all, you have probably chosen to work from home so that you can spend more time with your kid(s). But when you are working, you can’t afford distractions. There are times when you take 5 minutes off, you might lose the train of thought, so it’s better to finish the work at hand before taking a break.
Noisy neighbours, household chores and so many other distractions can come in the way of productivity. The lack of a working environment is a peril as well. If you work from an office, you would never even consider switching on the TV, but at home, this might happen.
So, is working at office better? There are so many occasions when you are distracted by your coworkers. They would come to you with their personal problems or want you to be with them for lunch or snacks.
Whatever your work is, disturbance comes as a part of the package anywhere you work. The main thing is, your dedication to your work will determine your productivity. Working from home has some real advantages like you don’t have to get up and get ready for work and then go through the traffic and travel a distance, you won’t have disturbances from your coworkers, etc., so you can save a lot of time that you can put to good use. But ultimately it’s up to you how you make use of the time that you have saved.
Let’s make some quick notes that can help you be more productive with working at home experience:
- Wake up early and in the morning take a cup of coffee and sit on your desk to work. This time is much earlier than standard office time, and at that time your mind is truly fresh. There is not a lot of noise outside, and most of the people in the neighbourhood are either sleeping or jogging.
- Think that you are going to go to the office. Sometimes you might think like that why not take more 5 minutes to bed as you are working from home and don’t have to go to workplace. These 5 minutes will easily get multiplied, and then your whole day’s routine might be ruined.
- Schedule your day and work as you would have done in your workplace. Make your schedule such that you complete most of your work at the first 4 hours of the day and then light works at the second half of the day. Do always try to follow that schedule and you will find your productivity is much higher than it used to be at your office.
- Try to dedicate a silent place of your home for your work which would mean only for your work and nothing else. This workplace with desk and table would set your mind to your work and you will seriously engage with the work.
- Set up a room in such a way that it inspires you to work. You can try out some DIY ideas or buy décor items like motivational quotes wall art or wall stickers.
- You should try to keep yourself away from the social media(personal) and other messaging sites while working from home. They are one of the biggest distractions and you won’t even know the amount of time you actually wasted while being on a social media or chatting with someone.
- You should always try to complete a little bit of extra work than you have been assigned for the day. That would keep you on the schedule of your job as well as in good terms with your boss and team.
- You should try to schedule your calls or any virtual meeting for the latter part of the day because most people are more active in the daytime and so that is the best time for production.
- Be sure you have power and network backup. If your power and internet doesn’t work you will be in a lot of trouble. You will most definitely not be able to meet your deadline. So, invest in backup.
- Don’t forget to take your breakfast, lunch and dinner on time when working from home. Plan healthy and nutritious home-cooked meals. Don’t delay or skip meals thinking that you got to make more work done. Your body needs to recharge, your mind needs some time to rest, and you don’t want to fall sick.
Work-from-home opportunities in India is becoming more and more popular. Let’s make more of it for all the skills and work experience one has got.
I sure hope you would find this article helpful, especially if you’re starting with your work-from-home career. If you have at it for a while, do share it comments what works best for you.
